This invention relates to a time recorder having functions to automatically discriminate and determine whether the time of receiving a time card is to be printed in either arrival time column or departure time column.
As well known, in conventional time recorders, a card pocket as a slot for inserting a time card is constructed in such a manner that the card pocket can be slid to different setting positions indicated as "arrival", "departure" and so forth (thereby, the position of the time card to be inserted in relation to the printer can be shifted in the width direction), and the time can be printed in the arrival time column of the card so long as the card pocket has been manually set to "arrival" position and the card has been inserted, and also in the departure time column of the card as long as the card pocket has been set to "departure" position and the card has been inserted when a worker corresponding to this time card is about to go home.
In addition, it is known that some conventional time recorders are able to automatically slide said card pocket to "arrival" position at a predetermined arrival time zone and to "departure" position at a predetermined departure time zone.
In case of time recorders of the former type in which the selection of either arrival or departure is manually performed, manual selection itself is somewhat troublesome and printing is frequently made in wrong columns because of incorrect selection. Particularly, when many persons assigned to work in different classes of working hours are using a common time recorder, and there are both workers who come to work and who are going home in the same time zone, almost every worker has to perform the arrival-departure selection in many cases, resulting in more chances of making errors during the selection.
Also, the time recorders capable of automatically performing the arrival-departure selection in response to the time zone cannot be used when some workers are going home while the others have just come to work in the same time zone.